Canisius Golden Griffins

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Canisius Golden Griffins
Canisius Golden Griffins Logo.svg
University Canisius University
Conference Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (primary)
Atlantic Hockey
NCAA Division I
Athletic director Bill Maher
Location Buffalo, New York
Varsity teams16
Basketball arena Koessler Athletic Center
Baseball stadium Demske Sports Complex
Other venues LECOM Harborcenter
Mascot Petey
NicknameGolden Griffins
ColorsBlue and gold [1]
   
Website gogriffs.com
Canisius Athletics wordmark.png

The Canisius University Golden Griffins are composed of 16 teams representing Canisius University in intercollegiate athletics. These teams include men's and women's basketball, cross country, track, lacrosse, soccer, and swimming and diving. Men's sports include baseball, ice hockey, and golf. Women's sports include volleyball, soccer, and softball. The Golden Griffins compete in the NCAA Division I and are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) for most sports, excluding men's ice hockey which competes in Atlantic Hockey.

Contents

Sports sponsored

Men's sportsWomen's sports
Baseball Basketball
Basketball Cross country
Cross countryLacrosse
GolfRowing
Ice hockey Soccer
Lacrosse Softball
SoccerSwimming and diving
Swimming and divingTrack and field†
Track and field†Volleyball
† – Track and field includes both indoor and outdoor

Baseball

In 2008, the men's baseball team won the regular season MAAC championship for the first time in its history with a 41–13 record. This broke the school record for wins in a single season. One season later, the team advanced to its first MAAC Championship game in program history. [2]

Men's basketball

The Canisius men's basketball team has made four appearances in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, the last appearance coming in 1996.

Ice hockey

The Canisius men's ice hockey team has made two appearance in the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, in 2013 and 2023.

Men's lacrosse

In 2008, Canisius men's lacrosse won the MAAC tournament and earned its first ever bid to the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament. [3]

Canisius again won the MAAC championship in 2012. Sitting at 2–7, The Griffs would win their final 2 regular season games to advance to the MAAC championship as the 3 seed. From there Canisius would avenge regular season losses to Detroit 12–10 and Siena 10–9 en route to their 2nd MAAC Championship and automatic qualifier. The Griffs would eventually fall to 2012 NCAA champion Loyola. In 2018 the Griffins would win the MAAC tournament after entering as a number 4 seed and get an autobid to the NCAA Tournament. The Griffins would fall to Robert Morris in the NCAA Tournament Play-in game by a score of 12–6. [4]

Women's lacrosse

Canisius has sponsored women's lacrosse since 1999. After just 10 wins in its first four seasons, Scott Teeter took the reins of the program beginning with the 2003 season and eventually turned it into a contender in the MAAC. After just one win in his first two seasons, the Griffs went 9–6 (4–3 MAAC) in Teeter's third season and advanced to the MAAC championship game in 2006. After three straight conference semifinal appearances between 2008 and 2010, the Griffs won the MAAC championship in 2011, kicking off a stretch of six NCAA appearances in a span of seven years. [5] In 2017, Erica Evans was named a Tewaaraton Award semifinalist, the first in the program's history.

Softball

The softball team has traditionally been the university's most successful sport, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament twelve times since the 1994 season (including four straight times from 1994 to 1997) and winning sixteen MAAC regular-season championships. Its most recent trip to the NCAA tournament was in 2022. [6]

Former sports

Football

Canisius sponsored football intermittently from 1918 to 2002.

Wrestling

The Golden Griffins had club wrestling for two years before starting a varsity team in 1970–71. Coached by Charles Mann, the Griffs compiled a losing record of 0–7. The following year, the team was dropped after the first dual meet due to "lack of student participation." [7]

Synchronized swimming

The Canisius synchronized swimming team began as a club team in 1992, before being elevated to a varsity team one year later, in 1993. [8] Canisius re-classified the synchronized swimming team back to the club level following the conclusion of the 2014 season, after the NCAA dropped the sport from its Emerging Sports classification. The Canisius synchronized swim team had been the 3rd place team in the nation since 2008, fielding several national champions in several categories each year. The team had been ECAC champions since 1996.

Synchronized swimming head coaches

  • Joanne Wright, 1993–2004
  • Stacy Leiker, 2004–2006
  • Jill Wright, 2006–2014

Rivalries

Canisius won the Canal Cup in 2008 and 2009. The cup commemorates the athletic rivalry between Canisius College and Niagara University. Canisius has won the trophy two times in the Canal Cup's three-year existence. [9]

Both Canisius and Niagara maintain rivalries with the other two Division I universities in western New York. The joint rivalry between the two and Saint Bonaventure University is known as the Little Three. The four-way rivalry between those three schools and the State University of New York at Buffalo (the only public, non-Catholic Division I school in the region) is known as the Big 4. (Of note, in men's basketball, both its current coach, former Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon, and his most recent predecessor, former Saint Bonaventure coach Jim Baron, previously coached at other Big 4 schools before joining Canisius.)

Mascot

Canisius' mascot is the Golden Griffin. The college adopted it in 1932, after Charles A. Brady ('33) wrote a story in a Canisius publication honoring Buffalo's centennial year as a city. Brady wrote about Rene-Robert LaSalle's Le Griffon, the first European ship to sail the upper Great Lakes, built here in Buffalo. The name stuck, and Canisius' mascot was born.

According to GoGriffs.com, the griffin is a "mythical creature of supposed gigantic size that has the head, forelegs and wings of an eagle and the hindquarters, tail and ears of a lion." It represents values such as strength, vigilance, and intelligence, all of which befit a college and qualities that one would look for in students and athletes alike.

Pro-football venue

Canisius was also the home field of the Buffalo All-Americans of the early National Football League. Around 1917, Buffalo manager, Barney Lepper, signed a lease for the team to play their home games at Canisius College. The All-Americans played several of their games at Canisius before relocating to Bison Stadium in 1924. [10]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canisius Golden Griffins men's ice hockey</span> College ice hockey team

The Canisius Golden Griffins men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college ice hockey program that represents Canisius College. The Golden Griffins are a member of Atlantic Hockey. They play at the LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo, New York across the street from KeyBank Center, home of the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League. Canisius won an automatic bid to the 2013 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship after winning the Atlantic Hockey title in the conference playoffs, but lost in the first round to top-ranked Quinnipiac.

The Rev. James M. Demske Sports Complex is a baseball, soccer, lacrosse, and softball venue in Buffalo, New York, United States. It is home to the Canisius Golden Griffins baseball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's lacrosse, and softball teams of the NCAA Division I Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). Built in 1989, the venue has a capacity of 1,200 spectators. The building is named for Rev. James Demske, who served as the President of Canisius College from 1966 until 1993. It is located behind the Koessler Athletic Center on Canisius' campus. To save space and money in the college's urban setting, the 14-acre (5.7 ha) facility is home to six Canisius athletic programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canisius Golden Griffins softball</span> College softball team

The Canisius Golden Griffins softball team represents Canisius University in NCAA Division I college softball. The team participates in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The Golden Griffins are currently led by head coach Kim Griffin. The team plays its home games at the Demske Sports Complex located on the college's campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canisius Golden Griffins women's basketball</span>

The Canisius Golden Griffins women's basketball team is the women's basketball team that represents Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. The team currently competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012–13 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2012–13 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team represented Canisius College during the 2012–13 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Golden Griffins, led by first year head coach Jim Baron, played their home games at the Koessler Athletic Center and were members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. They finished the season 20–14, 11–7 in MAAC play to finish in a tie for fourth place. They lost in the quarterfinals of the 2013 MAAC tournament to Iona. They were invited to the 2013 CIT where they defeated Elon and Youngstown State to advance to the quarterfinals where they lost to Evansville.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Bridge (Canisius–Niagara)</span>

The Battle of the Bridge is the name of the all-sports rivalry between the Canisius Golden Griffins and the Niagara Purple Eagles. Both schools are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The two teams compete every school year in 14 sports; men's baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's golf, men's ice hockey, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, women's softball, men's and women's swimming & diving, and women's volleyball. The overall winner of the annual series receives the Canal Cup trophy. The two long time Western New York rivals created the trophy in 2007 to enhance the historic rivalry between the two schools. The name of the series is a reference to the Grand Island Bridge, which each team crosses when traveling along I-190 to the other's campus. The name of the trophy is a reference to the Erie Canal, which separates Erie County, where Canisius is located, and Niagara County, where Niagara is located.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014–15 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2014–15 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team represented Canisius College during the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Golden Griffins, led by third year head coach Jim Baron, played their home games at the Koessler Athletic Center and were members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. They finished the season 18–15, 11–9 in MAAC play to finish in fifth place. They lost in the quarterfinals of the MAAC tournament to Monmouth. They were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament where they defeated Dartmouth in the first round and Bowling Green in the second round before losing in the quarterfinals to NJIT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019–20 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2019–20 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team represented Canisius College in the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Golden Griffins, led by fourth-year head coach Reggie Witherspoon, played their home games at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo, New York as members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. They finished the season 12–20, 7–13 in MAAC play to finish in tenth place. They lost in the first round of the MAAC tournament to Iona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021–22 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2021–22 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team represented Canisius College in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Golden Griffins, led by sixth-year head coach Reggie Witherspoon, played their home games at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo, New York as members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022–23 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2022–23 Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team represented Canisius College in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Golden Griffins, led by seventh-year head coach Reggie Witherspoon, played their home games at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo, New York as members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Michael R. Rappl is an American former basketball and softball coach. From 1980 until 2014, Rappl was the head softball coach at Canisius College. While at Canisius, Rappl helped build the program from a club team into a perennial NCAA tournament team and is considered a legendary figure in Canisius athletics history.

References

  1. ↑ "Canisius College Style Guide 2014" . Retrieved April 13, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Baseball History & Records - The Official Web Site of Canisius College Athletics". Gogriffs.com. 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  3. ↑ "Canisius routs VMI, earns MAAC championship and NCAA bid". InsideLacrosse.com. May 4, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  4. ↑ "2012 MAAC Champions - The Official Web Site of Canisius College Athletics". Gogriffs.com. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  5. ↑ "WLAX Results 2023" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "Softball History & Records - The Official Web Site of Canisius College Athletics". Gogriffs.com. 2015-09-14. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  7. ↑ "Wrestling Dropped". thegriffinnewspaper.com. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  8. ↑ Moritz, Amy (April 25, 2000). "Winning isn't easy but it's routine at Canisius". The Buffalo News. Archived from the original on January 11, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Battle of the Bridge - The Official Web Site of Canisius College Athletics". Gogriffs.com. 23 June 2008. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  10. ↑ Miller, Jeffery (2002). Buffalo's Forgotten Champions. Archived from the original on 2010-09-22. Retrieved 2012-04-30.
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